The product pieces are falling together nicely!
Note the references to Alcatel. The piece still not clear to me is the modem in the subscribers computer. Where does that come from?
I transcribed this from today's Boston Globe before I saw it ont he PairGain thread. It seems to be the same. Here it is for convience.
From the Boston Globe, 5/19/97
Bell Atlantic to unveil high-speed Internet access plan
By Eric Auchard, Reuters
"Typed in by Dave Chanoux"
New York - Bell Atlantic Corp. today will announce plans to offer high-speed Internet access to homes using new technology that can send data-heavy graphics over standard phone lines, a spokeswoman said yesterday.
Analysts consider the plan the most aggressive effort yet announced by a major phone carrier to offer high-speed Internet access on a wide scale to home computer users.
The new servcie is set to be rolled out to consumers in stages starting in mid-1998 across the six state Mid-Atlantic region where Bell Atlantic offers local services, the spokeswoman said.
The company said it would consider extending its ADSL plans into New York and New England once it gets final approval for its merger with Nynex Corp. -- which would create the nation's largest phone company, stretching from Maine to Virginia.
As part of the announcement, Bell Atlantic will announce a four-year contract with DSC Communications Corp. to supply network equipment to allow high-speed Internet access.
Financial terms of the deal will not be disclosed.
But industry sources familiar with the contract said it was potentially a "multi-hundred million dollar" deal for new equipment purchases from DSC and partner Westell Technologies Inc., which supplies the Internet access technology.
ADSL or Asymetrical Digital Subscriber Line, is a generic term for Westell's method for providing Internet access over standard phone lines at transmission rates 200 times faster than now typically available.
Last week, DSC and Westell announced a related deal in which Westell allowed DSC to incorporate Westell's high-speed modems into DSC's existing line of local phone access equipment, which it supplies to carriers and Internet service providers.
Because the high-speed Internet access system is based on existing DSC network equipment in use at Bell Atlantic and five of the six other US Baby Bell companies, it will cut hte cost of offering ADSL to consumers, A DSC spokesman said.
The contract's estimated value -- at several hundred million dollars -- represents one of the largest deals ever to supply high speed Internet access equipment.
In October, French equipment supplier Alcatel Alsthom said it received an order to supply ADSL modems to a consortium of US phone companies in a deal industry analysts estimated to be worth roughly $300 million.
The contract represents a key vindication for Westell, a pioneer in the high-speed ADSL field, which has traveled a long road to develop, test and demonstrate the technology.
Westell officials declined to comment on the Bell Atlantic contract, other than to confirm that they expected a "significant" customer contract to be announced this week.
Westell has announced that its systems are undergoing testing by an array of top US and European phone carriers.
Deployment of the ADSL system by phone carriers, which requires a Westell modem for each phone customer access line, makes widespread, even ubiquitous, use of ADSL forseeable over time, he said.
The Bell Atlantic spokeswoman said the company was still working out ADSL targeting plans across its region. She said a similar high-speed access service for business woudl be offered after residential service is rolled out next year.
-end- |
